


Problematic to Say the Least

by Trelobita



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Angst, Complicated Emotions, Complicated Relationships, F/M, Forbidden Love, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Incest, Mutual Pining, Older Man/Younger Woman, Praise Kink, Reluctant Rick, Rick has a heart whether he likes it or not, Self-Loathing, So does Rick, Summer knows what she wants, Taboo, Unhealthy Relationships, a few years after canon, additional tags will be added as needed, brief chastising kink, coming to terms with a shitty situation, giving in, grandfather/granddaughter - Freeform, insistent Summer, self-restraint, suspicious Morty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-03-08 06:53:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13452834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trelobita/pseuds/Trelobita
Summary: Summer and Rick both have a problem that seems to have no real solution. Summer has known about her problem for years, but Rick is only just now coming to terms with his. They say open communication can solve any problem, but common wisdom may or may not apply in a situation like this.





	1. Tension

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't help but contribute to this tiny corner in the Rick and Morty fandom. This fic is dedicated to the Sumrick shippers who are some of the nicest and most perceptive people I've had the pleasure of knowing in this or any fandom.

Summer Smith trained her green eyes on the handsome young man from across the empty dishes of their dinner and redoubled her efforts to appear interested as he prattled on about the current state of politics. The date had started nicely enough. A good movie, dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant, and a man that—at first glance—had appealed to Summer courtesy of his lean frame, shaggy platinum hair, ice-blue eyes, and keen wit. But as the night wore on, she had been disappointed to discover that he was just as boring as the parade of men that had preceded him. 

 

She winced inwardly at the unkind thought, knowing full well that it really was she—and not he—who was the problem. She was the one who was resorting to compulsive serial dating to drown out an unwanted desire that had plagued her for several years now. Holding these poor guys to a standard that was impossible to meet. 

 

Summer chewed her lip and toyed idly with a lock of her red hair as she sized up her present company. Yeah, he still might be able to siphon off some of her pent-up frustrations if not relieve them completely. Fat chance of _that_ happening. 

 

“Hey Zach,” she interrupted her date’s political rant, and he stopped short, whipping his head in her direction as if he’d forgotten she was there. “You wanna go somewhere?” Her voice dropped an octave as she made the suggestion, and she knew Zach took her meaning as his blue eyes clouded over with lust.

 

“Sure, Summer. Uh… let me just pay the tab…”

 

A short time later, Summer was shoving Zach into the door of his apartment and swallowing his yelp of surprise with a ferocious kiss.

 

“Jesus, Summer, at least let me open the door first!” he huffed when he pushed her away long enough to shove the key in the lock. 

 

The moment they were inside, Summer pushed him onto the couch and straddled him, kissing him with an urgency that he did not seem to share. His kiss was slow and easy, his hands gentle as they slid up her thighs.

 

“Whoa, slow down, Baby, what’s the rush?” he mumbled into her mouth, not realizing that calling her ‘baby’ would have the exact opposite effect.

 

 Summer growled in frustration and ground her hips into him with renewed vigor. “Agh! God damn it, Zach, just fuck me! _Now_!”

 

Zach did eventually oblige her, but when all was said and done, he might as well have not bothered. Twenty minutes later, Summer was already in her car speeding home, no less frustrated than if sex hadn’t happened at all. Any guilt she had felt about finding Zach boring was killed by her cold dissatisfaction at his inability to get her off.

 

“I can’t keep doing this,” she said to her empty car, blinking back her angry tears as she pulled into the familiar driveway of her parents’ house.

 

It was only about 9:00PM, but Summer could see no sign of activity in the house from her vantage point in the car. No light shone through the windows. Considering it was a Friday night, the various members of her family could be anywhere. It was highly unlikely that anyone had gone to bed this early. She sat there for a long moment just staring at the front door. For the hundredth time, she cursed herself for not going to college out of town, or at the very least, for not staying in the dorms. It was Beth who had encouraged her to stay at home to save on college expenses. She had agreed, mostly because she couldn’t think of a reason for why she shouldn’t. She sure as hell couldn’t have told her mother the real reason. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Summer exited the car and went in. 

 

Upon entry, she was relieved to see that the lights were out and all was silent. That relief was cut short when a gruff voice cut through the darkness.

 

“Back already? Guess this one sucked too.” 

 

Summer heaved a beleaguered sigh as she turned on the foyer light to reveal her grandpa Rick’s tall, lean frame reclined across one of the stairs, flask in hand, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Her breath caught when his ice-blue eyes rose to appraise her with sardonic amusement.

 

 _Ice blue eyes that she was trying so hard to find as alluring in other men_. 

 

She pushed down that thought and let the feeling it left behind feed into the lingering frustration from her horrendous date. Rick was the last person Summer had wanted to run into this evening. She chose to ignore his on-the-nose observation about her date and gave him her best scowl.

 

“Grandpa Rick, why the hell are you sitting here in the dark? It’s creepy. And weird.” 

 

“It’s relaxing,” Rick countered without missing a beat, “It’s not often that I get a break from your pain-in-the-ass family.” He maintained eye contact with Summer as he took a swallow from his flask, “You look like you could do with some relaxing yourself.”

 

Summer snorted, “They’re _your_ family too. And since when do _you_ feel the need to relax?”

 

“Since—since my granddaughter started dating a string of shitty men. Seriously, what the fuck, Summer?” Still that unwavering eye contact that would feel combative if not for the way his brow now furrowed, turning his expression into something that suspiciously resembled concern. 

 

Summer might have welcomed her grandfather’s concern if it had been about anything else, but not this. This struck a raw nerve and her frustration instantly flared into full-blown anger. She stomped over to the stairs right into his personal space, ready for a fight.

 

“You know what? _Fuck_ you, Rick. This is none of your goddamn business. You’re not my dad. You’ve hardly even acted like a grandfather the entire time I’ve known you, so why do you even care?”

 

Rick’s eyes widened at his granddaughter’s sudden aggression for only a moment before they narrowed into a scowl that matched hers. He immediately rose to his full height to meet her challenge. Now it was he who towered over her, close enough for her to smell the booze on his breath. His proximity ignited a dizzying warmth in the pit of Summer’s stomach that had nothing to do with anger, and it made her all the more furious at him.

 

“I never said I cared, _Summer_ ,” he spat her name like an insult, “I just hate watching people waste their time.”

 

Waste their time? What exactly was he getting at? Was he judging her for playing the field? As if that wasn’t something he himself had done most of his life?

 

“I’m _not_ wasting my time! I’m just having fun! This is the sort of shit you’re supposed to do at nineteen! It’s the sort of thing _you_ never stopped doing!” She shot back defensively. 

 

Rick chuckled humorlessly and lay his hands on her bare shoulders. Summer couldn’t remember the last time he had done that, if indeed he had ever done it at all. She tried to ignore the way her pulse quickened the moment he touched her.

 

 “I—I’m not talking about the promiscuity. Even I’m not _that_ much of a hypocrite. But whatever it is you’re doing, it’s _not_ having fun. That’s why it’s a waste of time. Look at you!” His hands slid from Summer’s tense shoulders to cup her face with callused palms while his eyes grimly swept over her as if he was inspecting her for injuries. She was so caught off guard by the uncharacteristically tender gesture that her anger almost entirely subsided, leaving behind the bewildering mix of sadness, embarrassment, and sexual frustration that had triggered it in the first place.“I know miserable, and you are fucking miserable! What are you looking for in these pieces of shit, anyway?”

 

As usual, his harsh words and caustic tone did not match his actions. Summer stared transfixed into the lined, angular face of her grandfather, her green eyes glittering with unshed tears, feeling vulnerable under his scrutiny without her anger to shield her. She wanted to fall into his arms like any granddaughter would. Bury her face in his sweater and cry her eyes out. Tell Grandpa exactly what had her so upset so that he could make it all better. 

 

But there was something else she wanted even more. Something so fucked up that she could scarcely admit it to herself, let alone confide in another about it. Least of all the very person at the center of it. He could never know. He could never really understand. There was nothing he or anyone else could do about this. Anger rose up again, unbidden and overwhelming, and she wrested out of his grasp.

 

“It doesn’t matter!” she shouted at him, tears finally streaming down her cheeks, “I know I’ll never find it! Just leave me alone, Rick!”

 

Summer pushed past Rick and tore up the stairs. She was halted when his hand  shot out and grabbed her wrist.

 

“Summer…” She turned around to see him looking up at her with a flat, guarded expression. “I was just trying to… uh…” he faltered, then bit out, “…help.”

 

“Well, _stop_ trying. You suck at it! Now let go of me!” She was sobbing openly now, unmoved by Rick’s unusual show of vulnerability, and fully prepared to say the cruelest things she could think of if it would help put an end to this uncomfortable confrontation. Rick showed no outward reaction to Summer’s harsh words, but he held onto her a moment longer before opening his hand to release her. Once freed, Summer resumed her flight upstairs without bothering to spare her grandfather a final glance, raced into her bedroom and slammed the door.

 

She threw herself onto the bed and cried her heart out, screaming into her pillow in a fit of histrionics that she would later look back upon with shame and embarrassment. But right now, it was just what she needed.

 

Eventually, the tears and convulsions subsided, and Summer was left with a headache, runny nose, and that strange feeling of hollowness and clarity usually left behind after an intense emotional purge. Now, in the privacy of her inner sanctum, she allowed those unwelcome thoughts to resurface and be examined yet again.

 

She was sick. She was damaged. She was deeply and hopelessly attracted to her grandfather and it was becoming increasingly clear that she was never going to be able to get over him or supplant him with another man. 

 

This was not a new problem.

 

The moment Summer had first laid eyes on the tall, wiry old man in the white lab coat with his angular features, shock of silver hair, and ice-blue eyes that sized her up with manic intensity, a warm, giddy sensation had blossomed in her chest that she instantly recognized as attraction. That feeling did not falter—much to her horror—when her overjoyed mother had introduced the man as Rick Sanchez, her long-estranged father—Summer’s grandfather—and announced that he would be moving in with them.

 

Well shit. 

 

Summer had resolved to push down her initial impression of him and wait it out. Wait for her inappropriate feelings to evolve into something more familial. Unfortunately, the more time she’d spent with Grandpa Rick (she had been determined to call him that at first, as if adding the patriarchal title to his name would somehow reprogram the nature of her feelings for him), whether it was going on inter-dimensional adventures with him and her little brother Morty, or simply vegging next to him on the couch, the more her infatuation with him only deepened. 

 

Rick could have helped the situation if he had ever acted the least bit like an actual grandfather. But no _._ Far too often he was co-conspirator to his grandkids, operating on their level in spite of his great intellect. He offered them escape, adventure, downright temptation. Though Morty was drawn into Rick’s world far more often than Summer, Rick still had a way of making her feel included and needed in a way her parents never had   And oh, Summer loved him for it.

 

There were times when she had been tempted to broach the subject with Morty, suspecting that he might understand her feelings on some level since he was the only other person who knew Rick the way she did… maybe even more so. But she never could work up the courage. Even if her brother could manage to keep it to himself, she found that she feared his potential judgment and condemnation almost as much as Rick’s or her parents’.

 

And so Summer repressed and endured it for years, playing the role of the bratty, disaffected teenager while secretly thrilling at every moment spent with her incredible, larger-than-life grandfather, hoping that nothing she said or did would reveal the truth. Hoping against hope that the feelings would eventually go away.

 

Now, she was in her sophomore year of college, and it was about six months ago that she had started trying in earnest—and in vain— to look for a man even half as exciting to her as Rick. With each new failure, her hope of ever ridding herself of this problem was crumbling further and further. Tonight’s explosion really was a long time coming. If Rick had been noticing what she was up to, this was the first time he’d made any mention of it. Just his luck, he had to go and approach Summer about it at the very moment she was reaching her limit. 

 

And if she was completely honest with herself, the magnitude of her anger with him (and herself) was proportionate to how much he was turning her on with his unusually aggressive concern and physical proximity. Even now, after that cathartic sob session, she was positively buzzing with arousal. There was no way she would be sleeping tonight if she didn’t see to that first.

 

Summer kicked off her heels and slipped out of the slinky blue dress and matching undergarments she had worn on the date. She stretched out on the bed completely nude, exhaling a long sigh of resignation and relief, willing the fresh images from her confrontation with Rick to appear in her mind’s eye. She pressed her palms to her face as he had, pretending that her hands were his, and envisioned his aged face and sharp eyes inches away from her own. In her fantasy, those ice-blue eyes were predatory and clouded with desire as he crouched over her, his lab coat enveloping them both. His alcohol-laced breath warm and heavy on her face as his hands slipped from her cheeks and traveled lightly down her body, touching her with a prowess that could only come from decades of experience.

 

 _“That’s it…That’s my girl,”_ Fantasy-Rick whispered in her ear,  and it didn’t take long for these fevered imaginings to send Summer to a quick, desperate climax. A single leftover sob escaped her lips as she thrust her hips upward to meet her rapidly working hand, chasing the final waves of pleasure as they ebbed. 

 

Orgasms never failed to make Summer feel peaceful and drowsy at the best of times, but thanks to the added emotional turmoil of the entire evening, she found she was suddenly so sleepy that she scarcely had the strength to turn down her sheets and climb beneath them. But she did, not bothering with pajamas and turning off her bedside lamp as she went. 

 

Before drifting off, she thought of Rick again. Not the sexy fantasy Rick who had gotten her off, but the Rick who had looked up at her from the bottom of the stairs with a poker face that didn’t entirely mask his helplessness and confusion at her strange behavior. She was hit with a sudden pang of remorse that would follow her into sleep. “I need to apologize to him,” she mumbled to herself just as unconsciousness took her.

 

***********************

 

Rick Sanchez was left standing at the foot of the stairs, arm outstretched dramatically like a silent film starlet as Summer pulled out of his grasp and dashed up the stairs, slamming the door to her bedroom. He held that pose longer than he ever would have admitted to everyone, bewildered and more than a little hurt by Summer’s words. 

 

What did he do? Or was it something he didn’t do? Just what the hell was going on with her? And, really, she had been right to ask: Why did he even care?

 

Rick let his arm drop and awkwardly cleared his throat, suddenly very embarrassed even though no one was around to see him. What was he doing? It just wasn’t like him to take such an interest in Summer’s dating life like this.

 

But then, it wasn’t like Summer to do anything she didn’t want to do either. And it was abundantly clear that she did not want to do… whatever it was she was doing with all those guys. Rick hated seeing her like this; enough to allow his facade of nonchalance to slip and say something about it. 

 

He never would have admitted it to her or anyone else, but Rick was proud of his granddaughter. Morty may have taken after his hapless father, but there was no doubt that Summer was blessed (or cursed) with Sanchez intelligence like her mother. Like her grandfather. And unlike both of them, she still had the chance to avoid making the same mistakes. (Though Rick had mused on more than one occasion that if not for those mistakes, there would be no Summer, so even mistakes were capable of bearing greatness.) There was such power and potential in her. A fire burned in those vivid green eyes, setting ablaze anyone who gazed into them. Gorgeous red hair that caught the eye of everyone she met.

 

 _Gorgeous red hair that never failed to catch_ _his_ _eye._

 

That sudden intrusive thought startled him, and the deadpan expression on his face shifted to shock before darkening into a deep glower. 

 

No. 

 

Fuck. no.

 

Rick snatched his flask from his pocket and chugged the remaining contents in a futile attempt to drown out that particular train of thought. He stalked over to the couch and plunked down with a huff, switching on the television. He began cycling furiously through the stations, glaring at the screen without really seeing it.

 

No, that’s _not_ it. He was not displeased with Summer’s legions of men for any reason other than concern for her unhappiness with them. And—for the sake of argument—if there _was_ some deeply buried vestige of unconscious, irrational envy and possessiveness at play here, it was nothing compared to the good old-fashioned familial protectiveness he felt at the sight of his granddaughter’s misery, or the pride that kept him from standing idly by while one of his own needlessly tortured herself for no discernible reason.

 

But the unwelcome notion persisted undeterred, and with it, some rather alarming feelings roused by the confrontation with Summer. Volatile and beautiful, so close that he could smell the sex on her. The sex with some unworthy little punk that clearly had brought her no pleasure or relief if the potent sexual energy coming off of her in waves was any indication. The creamy skin of her cheeks, soft in his hands as he cupped her face. Her lips flushed and parted, her green eyes swimming in unspilled tears. The sight of her distress had evoked a fierce tenderness in him that was not entirely grandfatherly.

 

It was then that Rick felt the mutinous stirring in his loins… _Fuck_. He let out an anguished groan and buried his face in his hands. No amount of mental sparring with himself could deny the truth behind _that._

 

_What the fuck, Sanchez. What. The. Fuck._

 

He had tried…really _tried_ to be what he thought Summer had needed in that moment, but playing the role of wise, supportive grandpa was something that would have been difficult for him even under the most normal of circumstances. Bottom line, she was right. God damn, he sucked so hard at helping. Doing nothing would have been more helpful. Doing nothing was what he was best at, anyway. Whatever Summer was going through, there was nothing he could offer her that wasn’t tainted by his fucked up motives, his lifetime of dysfunction. Rick would be the first to admit—after a couple of stiff drinks— that he was a fucked-up, twisted old man who had seen and done things that would make the average person crack. But _this_ … this was some _seriously_ fucked-up shit. This was a line that not even he would cross.

 

Rick turned off the TV, tossing aside the remote, and began digging frantically in his pockets for his portal gun. The idea of leaving for good crossed his mind only briefly before he thought of Beth’s imploring face. He couldn’t walk out on her again. But if she only knew the designs he had on her little girl… Rick shuddered.

 

Okay, so leaving wasn’t going to work. His only option was the tried-and-true Sanchez method. Don’t think about it. If he didn’t think about it, it didn’t exist. In the meantime, he needed to back the hell off from Summer. Whatever was going on with her, it would work itself out. 

 

When Rick finally found the portal gun, he entered the coordinates to his favorite off-world dive. Somewhere he could fast-track the process of not thinking about this or anything else. He fired the gun and stepped through the portal, leaving the foreboding silence of the Smith household for the comfortable chaos of an intergalactic nightclub.

 


	2. Escalation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Later the same night, Summer and Rick cross paths once more; this time with markedly different results.

Summer wasn’t sure what had woken her up. She perceived that it was still dark, and a bleary glance at the glowing green digits on her alarm clock revealed that it was in fact 3:13AM. Her first impulse was to roll over and go back to sleep, but after a few minutes of lying there with her eyes closed, it soon became evident that she was wide awake.

 

Resigning herself to consciousness at this ungodly hour, Summer heaved herself upright, reminded of her current state of undress as the comforter slid away from her upper body. This confused her briefly, since she never slept in the nude, but after a moment the events from last night came flooding back and she remembered how she had gotten to this state. She also remembered conking out at 9:00PM, a strange time to fall asleep that explained the strange time she was now awake. Fortunately, restorative sleep had dulled the sharper feelings that had led to her outburst and lashing out at Rick, but that pang of remorse over the way she had treated him remained. Summer grimaced as she recalled the cruel things she had said to him.

 

Poor Rick… one of the first times—if not _the_ first time— he had tried to actively help her with something, and she had thanked him by acting like a complete psycho bitch. It wasn’t like any of it was his fault.

 

Well… there was nothing she could do about it right now. Knowing Rick, he was most likely unconscious somewhere, sleeping off the effects of a late-night binge. 

 

Summer climbed out of bed and slipped a plush baby blue robe over her naked body, not bothering with any other clothing since she was certain that everyone was sound asleep. She opened her bedroom door a crack. Seeing and hearing nothing, she ventured out and headed downstairs, intent on an early morning snack and maybe some TV to keep her company.

 

She was halfway down the stairs when she first noticed the flickering glow of the television emanating from the living room. Surprised, but not entirely disappointed since she wasn’t really in the mood to be alone, she descended the remaining stairs silently on bare feet and crept over to the arched entryway of the living room, peeking through to see who else might be suffering from insomnia. She let out a small gasp.

 

A disheveled Rick was sprawled across the sofa on his back with his head lolled to the side on the center cushion. His long legs were hanging over the armrest as if he had stumbled backwards over the side of the couch and remained where he’d fallen. His eyes were open and glazed over as he stared blankly at the muted television. His jaw was slack and a single line of drool spilled from the corner of his mouth. One of his arms dangled on the floor, remote still in hand. Even from her vantage point several feet away, Summer could smell a spicy pungent aroma clinging to him, perhaps smoke from some exotic off-world hookah.

 

God, he looked rough. This binge must have been a particularly heavy one. Summer considered retreating quietly and letting him sleep this off (assuming he would eventually fall asleep… it was remarkable that he was even awake!), but her impatience to make things right kept her glued to the spot.

 

“Grandpa Rick?” she called out timidly. 

 

Rick didn’t move, didn’t even glance her way, but responded with a weary, “Oh… hey.” Summer hesitated for a moment—not quite able to tell if he wanted her there or not—before approaching the couch and taking a seat next to him. Her movement jostled him, and he turned his head upward to look for the source of the disturbance. His hazy eyes locked on her and went wide as if he was only just now registering who she was.

 

Summer had expected anger or apathy from him and would have felt that he was completely justified, but she was not at all prepared for the expression of outright sadness on his face as he gazed up at her.  She had _never_ seen him like this before.

  
“Ssssummerrrr,” her name slipped out of his mouth in a slurred whisper.

 

“Rick,” she piped up before he could say anything else, “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I was really upset about something, and I took it out on you.”

 

Rick pushed himself upright and turned to face his granddaughter properly, wiping away the string of drool on the corner of his mouth with a distracted swipe of his sleeve. He wrinkled his brow at her apology, swaying gently under the influence of the copious amounts of alcohol he had most likely consumed.

 

“N-no… no, you didn’t do anything wrong. You were right. You’re—you’d be better off without me. _All_ of you would.” His voice was brittle like he was on the verge of tears. Summer inched closer to her grandfather, alarmed by the magnitude of his distress. 

 

“What? No, that’s not what I said! _You_ didn’t do anything wrong. You were just trying to help. Like you said.” Summer looked away from him, “It’s just… I’ve got this problem. A bad one. There’s nothing anyone can do about it, and it’s really… getting to me lately. But that didn’t give me the right to go off on you like that.”

 

“You have every right to go off on me. Y-y-you don’t get it, Summer. I am so… fucked up. I never should have come here. Should’ve stayed away.” Rick slumped forward, covering his face with his hands. 

 

Summer began to suspect that it was something else entirely that had him so upset. Having cleared her conscience with an apology, her guilt receded, leaving behind only the wish to comfort him. She placed a tentative hand on his shoulder. He inhaled sharply, stiffening under her touch.

 

“That’s not true,” she argued softly, “You made Mom so happy by coming back. I know she doesn’t seem like the happiest person now, but you should have seen her _before_ you came back. You became a friend to Morty when he had no friends.  It took forever, but he’s finally gained some confidence. He actually has _friends_ now! And I…,” Summer trailed off for a moment, trying so hard to keep the wistful yearning out of her voice. She chose her words carefully before continuing, “I’m so glad you’re here… I’m glad that I was able to meet this amazing person I didn’t even know existed until he came back into our lives. You were the first person in the family who seemed like you wanted me around at all. You were the first person to really inspire me.” _You are the single most thrilling person I have ever met. You have no idea how much you mean to me. You have no idea how much I need you,_ she added in her mind. She was ashamed to feel the the familiar prickles of arousal at a time like this, but there they were, creeping in without permission, feeding off the raw vulnerability he was showing her. 

 

Rick remained motionless and silent, face still buried in his hands while Summer consoled him. He heaved a long, deep sigh and went slack, leaning heavily into her. Taken by surprise, she caught him and wrapped her arms around him. With a gentle hand, she guided his hands away from his face, and his arms immediately encircled her waist as he turned and buried his face in the red hair that cascaded around her shoulders. 

 

Summer strained to keep her desire at bay as she rocked him slowly, but it was proving to be impossible. Never in all the years she had known Rick had something like his happened. Never before had she experienced such intimacy with him—physical _or_ emotional. Never so much as a goddamn hug. Yet here he was now, clinging to her as if his life depended on it, his fingers tightly gripping the soft fabric of the robe that she realized was now loose and starting to fall open. His breath was coming hard and uneven, presumably from his efforts not to cry, but every burst of warm air on the sensitive skin of her neck was setting her senses on fire. On top of that, the spicy, alien nightclub scent from his hair and clothing was making her feel downright lightheaded.

 

“You shouldn’t want to be anything like me… if you only knew,” she felt his lips move as he murmured into her throat. She reached a hand up to caress his silver hair, trembling under the effort to control herself as her heart raced, her own breathing becoming ragged and heavy. If he wasn’t noticing the effect this was having on her, he really _was_ fucking drunk.

 

After a long while, Rick finally pulled back and peered at her with clear blue eyes that had lost their hazy sadness. While still somewhat melancholy, they now conveyed something that was more shocking to her than anything that had come before. Gratitude. Affection, even.

 

Something broke in Summer, and the self-control that she had been exercising so admirably vanished in an instant. Before she could even think about what she was doing, she leaned forward and pressed a desperate kiss to Rick’s lips. After a moment that felt like an eternity, he made a muffled sound of alarm before releasing his hold on her waist and pulling away. He leapt to his feet, suddenly quite coordinated in spite of his inebriation. 

 

“Summer! W-w-w-what are you…what the _fuck_ was that?” he demanded in a harsh whisper, glaring down at her in astonished horror.

 

But it didn’t matter. Summer had felt it. She had felt the brief moment when he had responded to the kiss in earnest before pulling back. It was fleeting, but it was enough. She gazed up at him in wonder.

 

“Rick…you… you too… you want it too.” She could barely get the words out, breathless with need and overcome by the realization that, yes, her grandfather _shared_ her sick desire.

 

Panic flickered across Rick’s features before he returned to an almost over-the-top expression of moral outrage . “Jesus Christ, Summer, _no_! Whatever you’re thinking, whatever you think _I’m_ thinking, you put that shit out of your head, because _no_!” 

 

Summer shook her head slowly, her green eyes luminous as she held his gaze. “No…you’re lying,” she said with quiet certainty, “I felt it. You kissed me back. I _know_ you want me.” Rick’s maudlin lament made perfect sense now. It wasn’t their argument that had upset him. It was this. Emboldened by this incredible revelation, she arose from the couch and advanced on him.

 

The aged scientist looked stricken, but stood his ground. “ _No_ ,” he repeated firmly, flinching but not backing away when Summer placed her hands on his chest. She could feel his heart hammering beneath his ribcage.

 

“It’s okay,” she said in a gentle tone that was belied by the fierce intent in her emerald eyes, “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this.” His breath hitched a little at her confession as he stared back at her, his jaw set, his eyes darkened with anger and blatant arousal.

 

“It doesn’t matter what you want. It doesn’t matter what…,” he paused and swallowed, raking his eyes over her body, lingering over the spot where the robe had come loose, revealing the tantalizing swell of her breasts, “… _I_ want. It’s not gonna happen.”

 

Not to be deterred, Summer stepped forward and pressed her body against his, drawing a surprised gasp out of both of them when her crotch grazed the straining bulge in his pants. Rick went completely stiff, fists clenched tightly enough to turn his knuckles white. He did not react when she stood on tiptoe and kissed him again, lingering and imploring, dragging her lips down his cheek and along his jawline afterward.

 

“ _Please_ , Rick,” she breathed against his skin.

 

By now, Rick was shaking from the effort to control himself, furious with his beautiful granddaughter for doing this to him, furious with himself for being so goddamn susceptible to her.

 

“I’m warning you, Summer, don’t do this,” he growled, though it sounded far more like a plea than a threat. “I’m drunk. I’ll end up doing something I’ll regret and hate myself forever.” 

 

There was some deeply buried part of Summer that was actually pleased Rick was resisting her so adamantly. The part of her that was screaming that this whole thing was sick. It wasn’t a conscious thought, but it filled her with the intuitive sense that he really cared…that he was no where near as selfish and nihilistic as he presented himself to be. But it did absolutely nothing to discourage what she wanted from him. If anything, it amplified it. She didn’t want his resistance as an expression of love. She wanted his indulgence.

 

  “ _I_ wouldn’t hate you. If you care about me at all, you’ll let me have this.”

 

“You know that’s some bullshit, Summer. Grandfathers who care about their grandkids don’t…” he trailed off through clenched teeth. He clearly couldn’t bring himself to even say it.

 

“Grandfathers who care about their grandkids stick around so they can watch them grow up, so they can be a part of their lives from the beginning, so they can help take care of them and imprint on them from their earliest memories, so shit like this doesn’t happen, _Grandpa_ Rick” Summer cut in sharply, giving him a pointed look.

 

Rick’s frown deepened and she knew that she had struck a nerve. She instantly regretted saying all that.The last thing she wanted to do at a time like this was to make him dwell on past mistakes or confront the grim reality that his own actions had played a huge role in cultivating this fucked-up situation. So she did the only thing she could think to do, the only thing she wanted to do. She clutched the lapels of his lab coat and yanked him down into another kiss. This time he responded immediately, kissing her hungrily through an anguished moan. No more pretending. No more resisting.

 

Without warning he grabbed her roughly by the arms and slammed her onto the couch. She landed hard on her back with a yelp. Before she could do or say anything, he was upon her, pinning her down with his long, lean body while he held her wrists above her head with one hand. He ground his hips into hers with the fervor of someone a quarter of his age, clamping his other hand over her mouth to stifle her shriek of pleasure. 

 

“God fucking  _damn_ it, you’re asking for it, little girl,” he husked against her face, leaning in so close the alcohol on his breath stung her eyes, “And it’s not going to be sweet.” 

 

Summer didn’t think it was possible to be any more aroused than she already was from Rick’s sudden manhandling, but those words set off a wave of desire that crashed over her so intensely, it made her head spin. She hummed into his palm, chest heaving, watching him with eyes that were smoldering with arousal. He freed her mouth to let her respond.

 

“Don’t you know me at all? I’d be disappointed if it was,” she assured him in a sultry voice, a wry smile touching her lips. The expression on his face was almost proud as he looked down at her, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth, and Summer had the fleeting thought that she had never seen him look more paternal. Painfully ironic, considering their current position. It made her want him all the more. She canted her hips upward to meet his insistent grinding.

 

“Fuuuuuck, Summer,” he hissed, and bent to devour her mouth, initiating the kiss for the first time. She drank him in, blissfully overwhelmed by his assault on her every sense. They had only just begun, but she could already tell that he was going to ruin other men for her forever. As if he hadn’t already done that the last few years of her life just by existing. God, she was so screwed.

 

A floorboard suddenly creaked and groaned above their heads. Rick and Summer stopped short and listened. Another creak. And another. They settled into a steady rhythm of footfalls that were now traveling through the hallway upstairs. Someone was definitely out of bed. 

 

No, no, no, _no_! Not _now_! Summer wanted to scream at whoever it was to fuck off. She was terrified that Rick would stop. Get spooked or worse yet, come to his senses about this whole thing. But she needn’t have worried. Before she could so much as beg him not to stop or ask him what the hell he was doing, he was on his feet again, hoisting her up by her wrists. Cursing under his breath, he produced his portal gun, rapidly keyed in a destination, fired it, took her hand, and leapt through, dragging her in after him. 

 

******************

 

The unwelcome guest happened to be Morty who came wandering into the living room in a half-awake stupor just seconds after Rick and Summer made their hasty retreat. He had seen the explosion of familiar green light from Rick’s portal gun just as he had come down the stairs, compelling him to take a detour through the living room on his way to the kitchen out of idle curiosity.

 

A quick glance around the darkened room revealed it to be empty, though the TV was on and muted. Confused and groggy, Morty went over to the couch to look for the remote and found it on the floor near the coffee table. It was as he knelt to retrieve it that he turned his head and noticed the state of the couch. It was in _complete_ disarray, the cushions squished and off-kilter, as if it had just hosted a violent fight. 

 

 _Or_ … 

 

Morty shook off his drowsy, disinterested state when he considered another more salacious possibility: Rick had been enjoying an intimate moment with someone on that couch.

 

It was definitely Rick who had been down here as evidenced by the use of the portal gun. He had left in a hurry, judging by the state of the living room. It didn’t seem likely that he had run off on some spontaneous dangerous adventure in the middle of the night. At least, not this time, or he surely would have awakened Morty and dragged him along like he always did. 

 

So if Rick was on the couch with some woman (or man or androgynous alien being), why would he have left so suddenly and furtively? Morty quirked a brow as he pondered the implications. It almost seemed like whatever he’d been doing here was something he didn’t want to get _caught_ doing. For Rick, the single most shameless person Morty could think of, that was just strange.

 

His curiosity was piqued, but standing here in the living room at almost 4:00 in the morning puzzling over the meager clues Rick had left wasn’t going to get him any answers. He turned off the television, shrugged off the weirdness he had stumbled upon for now, and resumed his intended trip to the kitchen for a glass of ice water. He had every intention of interrogating Rick the next time he saw him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I had intended for this to only be two chapters, but now it's looking like it will take three or four. :-) Morty's intrusion surprised me almost as much as it did Rick and Summer.
> 
> Check out the lovely art of a scene from this chapter created by Karasuya! <3 
> 
> https://karasuya-art.tumblr.com/post/173451518180/oh-the-angst-scenes-from-problematic-to-say


	3. Culmination

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick spoils his granddaughter.

In all honesty, Summer didn’t really care where Rick was taking her as long as he intended to continue what they had started in the living room, but upon emerging from the portal, she couldn’t help but be momentarily distracted by the strange beauty of their surroundings. They were standing near a large pond in a forest clearing that was composed of fluffy, purple vegetation that resembled moss. It felt heavenly on Summer’s bare feet, softer even than the plush robe she was wearing. The forest that loomed all around them appeared to be made up of enormous, bioluminescent fern-like plants that bathed the clearing in a dim, blue light.The twilight sky that vaulted overhead was brilliantly illuminated by stars of every color and massive fuchsia nebulae, all mirrored flawlessly on the still surface of the pond. The air was warm and somewhat humid, stirred just so by a gentle breeze that carried a mild, flowery scent.

 

Summer had no more than a few seconds to process the gorgeous alien landscape before a sharp tug on her hand drew her flush against her grandfather’s firm chest where she was immediately caught up in his arms. He pulled her into a thorough kiss as he sank to his knees and deposited her on the soft carpet of vegetation before him. He crawled over her body, bracing himself with a hand on either side of her, and leaned in to pepper frantic kisses over her forehead, eyes, and cheeks.

 

“What the fuck, Summer…what the fuck… is wrong with you?” He breathlessly chided her between each kiss, “Sick little girl… begging Grandpa to fuck you…what am I supposed to _do_ with that?”

 

Summer wasn’t sure how she was able to muster a coherent thought through Rick’s verbal and physical onslaught, but somehow she managed to quip, “I _told_ you I had a problem.” She would have gone on to point out his hypocrisy, but his lips found a sensitive spot below her ear and she temporarily forgot how to form words.

 

He settled between her open legs, pressing his pelvis into hers, and she gasped as the coarse fabric of his pants rubbed over her bare crotch, somehow too much and not enough stimulation all at once. One of his hands strayed down her body, fingertips ghosting over her sternum,and slipped beneath the robe to grab one of her breasts firmly enough to make her cry out.

 

“Agh, Grandpa Rick!”

 

Rick propped himself up to look at her, the tiniest hint of concern on his face melting into a self-satisfied grin as soon as he saw her ecstatic expression.

 

“So… you like it when I do _this_.” He squeezed her breast a little harder and was rewarded with the same groan of pain-pleasure.

 

“Fuck yes,” she growled, writhing impatiently beneath him, “You said it wasn’t going to be sweet. Fucking _show_ me.”

 

It wasn’t that Summer didn’t appreciate each little gesture that betrayed the true nature of Rick’s well-guarded feelings for her, but she didn’t _want_ him be tentative or careful with her. She had gotten enough of that from the timid, inexperienced young guys she had fucked her way through while on her failed mission to get over him.

 

She could tell her words were having an effect on him, though. If there was anything that could get Rick going, it was a direct challenge. The plethora of conflicted emotion swirling in his icy blue eyes darkened into something wild and predatory, an effect that was intensified by the otherworldly light of the nebulae reflected in them.

 

He sat upright on his knees and tore open her robe, exposing her naked body to the warm night air and to his hungry gaze. She preened under his appraisal, giddy with anticipation as she watched his eyes roam over her curves. For years, she had wanted nothing more than to see him look at her like that.

 

 

A hand followed the path Rick's eyes had traveled until his long fingers were brushing over the neatly trimmed patch of flaming red hair covering her mons pubis and down to the smooth-shaven flesh of her labia. His touch was abrupt and impatient but still measured as he stroked Summer’s outer lips, gliding over her clitoris once or twice before curling two fingers inside of her with no effort. She hummed her pleasure and angled her hips upward to meet his touch. His mouth fell open and his eyes shot briefly to her face before returning to what was clearly a wondrous sight to him.

 

“God, look at you.You’re fucking _soaked_ ,” he murmured. Summer could hear the incredulousness in his voice, like he was still not able to buy that she could want him this much.

 

“What the _fuck_ , Summer,” Rick repeated in a strangled whisper as he quickly unbuckled his belt and shoved his pants and underwear down below his hips, just enough to release his straining cock from its confines. He stroked it a few times to lubricate with the generous amount of precum seeping from the head. Then, without ceremony, he fell over Summer’s body, nudged her legs apart with his knees, and penetrated her so suddenly that it might have hurt if she hadn’t been in such an extreme state of arousal. She let out a yelp that he quickly swallowed with a ravenous kiss. He was big, close to the largest she had experienced, but she took him in almost as easily as she had taken his fingers. Two staggered thrusts had him comfortably immersed within her slick heat.

 

Rick’s eyes fluttered closed, and he went still for a moment, forehead pressed to hers as he exhaled a long, ragged sigh against her lips. Summer was overcome with affection for him, moved almost to tears by this unguarded gesture. The latest in a recent string of unguarded gestures from this man she adored, this man who was indulging her like any grandfather would, _un_ like any grandfather would. She had to restrain herself from blurting, “I love you.” Somehow it seemed like the last thing she should do right now, like it would break the mutual spell they were under in this strange, beautiful place, free of judgment and consequence. However, she couldn’t resist raising a hand to comb her fingers through his silver hair and was relieved when his only reaction was a soft smile.

 

Then the moment passed, the smile faded, and Rick opened his eyes. Summer saw a strange mix of selfish lust and tenderness for her mirrored in their depths as he trained them on her face and began to fuck her in earnest. Displaying all the poise and self-control of a teenage boy, he fell into an urgent tempo, not easing up even when Summer whimpered his name a second time. She was glad of that, because it was not a plea for him to stop. She snaked her arms around his back beneath the lab coat that was enveloping the both of them and gripped at the soft fabric of his sweater, clinging helplessly to him as he hammered into her.

 

It was the most perfect moment in her entire life. Years of frustration dwindled with each passing moment, replaced with the thrill and joy of being in her grandfather’s embrace. He overwhelmed her, all around and inside her, fully occupying every last fragment of her thoughts and senses. And perhaps for the first time ever, he was utterly present for her. This moment with him belonged to her alone.

 

“This what you wanted, Baby?” Rick abruptly slowed to a more deliberate pace, hips working in long, deep, grinding thrusts as he breathed the question into her ear. She let out a single sob-laugh, eyes squeezed shut, and nodded vigorously. She felt his calloused palm on her cheek as he gently turned her head in his direction. “Come on, look at me, Summer. Let’s make a proper memory out of this.”

 

He sounded so in control, a subtle strain and breathiness in his rough voice the only betrayal of his current state. Summer opened her eyes to find him watching her raptly. He appeared sharp and lucid, the heavy aroma of alcohol on his breath the only remaining evidence that he had been drinking. She stared back at him, striving to maintain eye contact as he deftly brought her closer and closer to release. Already, she was on the brink.

 

“Fuck…Oh my god… _Rick_ ,” she pleaded between each gasp for air. Rick picked up some speed to help her along.

 

“That’s right… Yeahhhhh, that’s it, Babygirl,” he encouraged her, sounding for all the world like a grandfather helping his toddler granddaughter to take her first steps or learn to ride her tricycle. This perversely erotic observation was the last coherent thought to cross Summer’s mind before she was lost to the pure sensation of a staggering climax. She clawed her nails into Rick’s back as she tossed her head back and wailed. Her voice echoed across the serene waters of the pond and off the giant ferns, instigating something of a stir from the local fauna. Several unrecognizable creature sounds piped up to join her in a bizarre alien chorus.

 

“Fuuuuuck, Summer, look at you go, look at you comin’ for Grandpa. You’re fucking incredible, Baby,” Rick continued to shower her with encouragement and praise, helping to drag out her orgasm until she was tender from overstimulation, all the while filling an aching void inside her that went far beyond mere sexual frustration.

 

Eventually, the intensity of the climax mellowed into a dreamy euphoria. Summer lay there in her open robe on the bed of moss, toes digging into its fluffy softness, head back, eyes cast skyward, listening to the sounds of the forest as she held her grandfather, relishing the sensation of his warm, fully-clothed body on her bare skin. He continued to move languidly inside her, smooth as silk, never quite allowing the residual pleasure of her peak to fade out completely.

 

Presently, she lowered her eyes from the nebulae in the sky to meet his gaze once more and saw that he was smiling at her, looking quite pleased and more than a little smug. It was an expression that likely would have earned him a punch in the face earlier in the evening. But now that he had just given her the best orgasm of her life, it only compelled her to prop herself up on her elbows and crash her mouth into his.

 

Rick chuckled against her lips, but returned the kiss with a hunger that matched hers. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her upright as he drove into her with renewed vigor, effortlessly pushing her towards another orgasm. She wrapped her legs around his waist for leverage and rolled her hips in perfect rhythm with his. She was rewarded with a shameless groan of pleasure for her efforts.

 

“Gonna…aaaagghh…gonna make me come if you keep that up…”

 

Summer chuckled through her own involuntary gasps of pleasure, “Isn’t… _hahhhh_ … isn’t that the idea?” 

 

She was just about to crest once more when a monstrous creature crawled into her line of vision over Rick’s shoulder. It looked like some kind of arthropod, all spiny armor, too many legs, and ferocious mandibles. It was advancing on them with alarming speed. Summer’s blood turned to ice.

 

“Grandpa Rick… there’s something behind us! A—a giant bug thing!” She whispered urgently. Rick was so caught up in the moment and distracted by his mounting orgasm that he didn’t immediately process her words. “ _Rick_ , it’s coming _closer_!” She shrieked. He caught the terror in her voice that time, and turned his head to look behind them. All at once, his eyes went wide and sharp.

 

“Whoa, holy _shit_!” He tumbled to the side, hugging Summer protectively to his body, still inside of her, and dodged the creature’s attack just in time. Before it could adjust its trajectory and strike at them a second time, he pulled out a futuristic-looking gun and fired a red beam of energy at the monster. It died instantly, pitching onto the moss just a few feet from them.

 

With the danger dispatched, he returned his attention to her, breathing heavily, paternal concern for her evident but wildly overshadowed by the possessive lust in his manic blue eyes. It was an expression that would have looked strange on anyone else under any circumstances. She fancied that he resembled a carnivorous animal that had successfully defended its fresh kill from another predator. He didn’t even bother to drop his weapon as he continued right where he’d left off, upright on his knees, holding her tightly against him with his free arm, pounding into her for all he was worth. 

 

Summer’s spike of adrenaline from the terrifying moment fed into the powerful surge of arousal she was now experiencing from the thrill of her crazy-ass grandfather protecting her from a threat _while_ he was fucking her. She flung her arms around his neck and held on for the ride. It was all too much. She came again, harder than before, pressing her face into the crook of Rick’s neck to muffle her screams in case that had been what attracted the monstrous arthropod in the first place. In the throes of her climax, she was dimly aware of the fact that Rick was coming too.A few final erratic thrusts and he all but exploded inside of her as he threw his head back and let out a debauched roar that stirred the local animal life just as she had earlier. How very like him to show such indiscretion, even in the face of recent peril. Clearly, it was that very peril which had aroused him as much as it had aroused her.

 

Rick’s inhuman strength seemed to waver as his orgasm dragged on. (How old was he again?) He released his grip on Summer and she fell backwards the short distance to the mossy bed with him collapsing on top of her moments later, catching himself with his hands just enough to ease down without crushing her with his full weight. They were face to face again, and Summer took the opportunity to press her mouth to his once more in a tender kiss, free of the hunger and desperation that had built up in her the last several years. His eyes snapped open as if he had just been reminded of her presence, and he hesitated only a moment before returning the kiss with matching tenderness.

 

He rolled off of her with a sigh, disengaging their bodies and quickly tucking himself into his pants, and stretched out on his back on the moss, directing his gaze to the twilight above them. Summer followed his lead, and they lay side by side in companionable silence as they caught their breath. The corpse of their attacker lay nearby, and Summer was only a little surprised to find that didn’t bother her in the slightest. She was her grandfather’s granddaughter, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was getting too long and taking too long, and I was getting impatient to update, so I ended up splitting off the second half of it into a chapter of its own. It's half-written already, so I shouldn't take another four months to update! Yeesh! At the very least, I hope this was worth the wait!


	4. Two Options

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick tries... Rick really tries.

Rick Sanchez was presently reeling in the aftermath of an emotional rollercoaster ride that had spent the last few hours carrying him through the dizzying peaks and valleys of self-loathing, guilt, shock, anger, affection, exhilaration, and blinding lust.

 

Guilt had reasserted itself without warning, surging to the forefront of Rick’s consciousness just as the final spasm of his climax had ceased coursing through his body. Now, as he lay here on an alien world staring up at the sky, it consumed his thoughts, completely incongruous with the pleasant afterglow that rendered him boneless on the pillowy moss. His quick mind worked to make sense of what just transpired.

 

It had all started with the horrifying epiphany about Summer that sent him spiraling into an alcohol-soaked, self-loathing pity party. He had been extremely drunk and despondent when Summer—of all people— stumbled upon him in the middle of the night. And then, _she_ had wanted to apologize to _him_ for some reason, a fact he was still incapable of wrapping his head around. He should have left the room, gone to bed, gone _anywhere_. Instead, he had done the exact _opposite_ of what he had told himself he was going to do earlier that night by seeking comfort in the arms of the very person he had pledged to back off from. Desperate for any kind of respite from his misery, he had allowed her to hold him, allowed her warmth and proximity to quell his loneliness and ignite his senses, luxuriating in her innocent affection for him while privately losing his mind with desire. On some level, it had served as a punishment, forcing him to truly acknowledge his attraction to her and reinforce his guilt. But really, it had been a way to indulge in his desire without allowing any harm to come to Summer in the process. As drunk as he’d been, he never, _ever_ would have taken it any further than that.

  
But then, in an absurd twist of fate, the Universe had decided to make a mockery of what little shred of humanity he still possessed by making it known that his granddaughter wanted _him_ too. Seriously, what the _fuck_. Her kiss had come out of no where, too good and too terrible to be true, briefly tricking him into thinking he had passed out and gotten swept away in some erotic hallucination. No such luck. She had begged him, aggressively seduced him in his moment of weakness. In the days to come, he would console himself with the fact that he _did_ try to resist, but his already tenuous sense of restraint was no match for what had clearly been years of festering, unconscious desire. And when an encroaching family member had presented a chance for him to abort, he instead brought Summer here without a second thought and proceeded to fuck her brains out.

 

And damn if it wasn’t the best he’d ever had.

 

She had complemented him to ridiculous perfection. The combative banter, the strange mutual pleasure they’d derived from his lavishing incestuous praise upon her, even the erotic thrill they’d both experienced upon narrowly avoiding the attack of a dangerous creature. They had molded into each other’s desires like fitting puzzle pieces, like it was the most natural thing in the world. In all his decades of sexual encounters with innumerable partners—from random alienstrangers to his own wife—never had he felt so intensely wanted by someone. Never had _he_ wanted someone so intensely.

 

But _fuck_ , this was the child of his daughter. The child of the woman _he_ had created and known as a baby, a little girl.

 

The instinctive revulsion of the incest taboo was securely in place for Beth, but—as Summer herself had been astute enough to point out— Rick’s extended absence from his family’s life had not allowed for that innate revulsion to develop for the gorgeous young redhead who just happened to be his blood relative. She was already sixteen years old when he first met her; intelligent and precocious, already halfway to adulthood. From the very beginning, Rick could admit to himself that he found her aesthetically pleasing (feisty redheads were his favorite, after all), but that was it. He didn’t dwell on it, pushed it aside, didn’t think about it as he got to know her, got to liking her. Hence, the stage was set for this potent attraction to develop entirely without his knowledge until it finally grew too big to be ignored.

 

Unfortunately, no amount of rationalizing and reasoning through how it happened could change the fact that it was wrong, that he had willingly, _enthusiastically_ exacerbated a toxic situation.

 

_It’s what you do, Sanchez._

 

Slender fingers laced with his, bringing him back to the here and now, and heturned his attention to the beautiful young woman lying in the purple moss beside him. Bliss painted her youthful features as her green eyes wandered idly across the vast expanses of swirling fuchsia above them. Her crimson hair framed her face in wild disarray. Her robe was still open and disheveled, her fair skin reflecting the blue glow of the bioluminescent forest, her legs splayed in a most unladylike manner. She looked every inch like someone who had been thoroughly ravished. Rick would have gone on staring at her (because she was very much worth staring at) had she not suddenly broken the silence by wryly commenting:

 

“So…do you think all the Ricks just did this with all the Summers?”

 

It was the very last thing he would have expected her to say, and surprise alone had him laughing, temporarily breaking his tension and pulling him away from his guilty funk. She was _such_ a Sanchez.

 

“It’s a damn good bet we weren’t the only ones, for what it’s worth,” he replied through his abating chuckles. She smiled at that—eyes still skyward— and squeezed his hand. That little gesture of affection sent a fresh spike of guilt and unease through him.

 

It was bad enough that he’d just fucked Summer and loved it, that he had betrayed the trust of his daughter and possibly caused irrevocable damage to the family dynamic (something he would never admit aloud to caring about), but everything about this surreal aftermath—the laughter, the handholding, the happiness radiating from his granddaughter—was raising a particularly dire red flag. The same red flag that had flashed periodically throughout their frantic encounter, each time she pressed a tender kiss to his mouth or stroked his hair, the alarming swell of rapture that stung at his heart when she did. It all pointed to something that went far beyond mindless, self-indulgent lust, far beyond him taking advantage of her solely for the purposes of physical gratification, or vice versa. Far beyond misfiring sexual attraction.

 

Rick cleared his throat, fortifying himself to go against his very nature with what he was about to do.

 

“Summer,” he said softly. Summer turned her her head to meet his gaze, her emerald eyes outshining the stars overhead, and he felt that now-familiar sting of rapture once more. His resolve wavered for a moment. The expression on his granddaughter’s lovely face was open, unguarded. Not a trace of regret or irony. He didn’t _wan_ t to see that disappear.

 

But…

 

“Summer, this was a mistake. It can’t happen again.” Summer abruptly sat up and looked down at him, the joy and affection on her face instantly replaced by shock and hurt. He might have have gotten the same reaction if he’d just slapped her in the face.

 

“What?”

 

He let her question hang, his own face grim and remorseful, though at this point he couldn’t be sure if it was remorse for what they had done or for what he’d just said.

 

“Rick… you don’t mean that. That was fucking _everything_ that I needed. I never knew it could be like that,” she pleaded. Rick could detect a sort of desperate reverence in her voice. She fell over his chest and grabbed fistfuls of his lab coat, clinging to him less like a lover and more like the young granddaughter she was, “Don’t bullshit me… I _know_ you were into it on some level.”

 

 _On every level_ , the voice in his head corrected her, but he didn’t say it aloud. He did, however, return her desperate embrace without hesitation, one hand burying itself in her red hair, fingertips pressing into her neck, while the other rubbed hypnotic circles over the soft robe covering her back, reminiscent of a father soothing an infant. It was in that moment that he was truly struck by the twisted dichotomy of his love (yes, _love,_ he finally admitted to himself, because no other emotion in existence was capable of creating this level of agony… _or_ ecstasy) for Summer. And if his suspicions were correct, the twisted dichotomy of her love for him as well.

 

Fuck. He was Rick motherfucking Sanchez. It _would_ take something this sick to penetrate the infallible wall in his heart that had stood firm for decades, keeping a comfortable distance between himself and the rest of the Multiverse for so long.

 

And here was the source of it, warm and yielding in his arms, wanting him as badly as he wanted her, breaking his pathetic excuse for resolve with each passing moment. Already, he could feel desire coiling in his lower abdomen once more, the traitorous increased blood flow to his loins, threatening to take over and put a swift end to any attempt at taking the high road. But—he reasoned with himself— if he loved her, he had to try.

 

“Summer, you’re not an idiot. I know I don’t have to tell you how fucked up this is.” He made every effort to sound resolute and authoritative.

 

“I don’t care,” Summer’s voice was sullen, muffled by the fabric of his sweater, “I _can’t_ go back to what I was doing before. Getting just one taste of this…of _you_ …would be worse than if it never happened at all.” She lifted her head to look at him again. “You asked what I was looking for in all those guys. I think you’ve got a pretty good idea of what it was, now, and not one of them even came close. I imagined how it would be for so long, and even that _imaginary_ standard was impossible to meet. Now that I’ve experienced the real thing…” She trailed off.

 

“How long?” Rick asked, realizing suddenly that he was insanely curious. He’d reasoned through this shit show from his own point of view, but Summer’s side of things remained mysterious to him.

 

“How long what?”

 

“How long is ‘so long’?”

 

“As long as I’ve known you,” she replied quietly.Rick gaped at her. She had managed to keep this under wraps for almost four years? How the _fuck_ had he not noticed? 

 

“You’re shitting me.” She shook her head solemnly. Gobsmacked, he could only lay there staring into her emotive green eyes until she spoke up again.

 

“How about you?”

 

Despite her ambiguous wording and his current state of shock, he immediately knew what she was asking.

 

“Last night,” he mumbled. It was her turn to gape at him.

 

“No way. Now _you’re_ shitting _me._ ”

 

“I—I mean, _clearly_ I’d been carrying around some baggage without knowing it, but yeah.Last night, after you got back from your shitty date, and it really fucked me up. And then, out of nowhere, my crazy bitch grandkid comes onto _me_. Jesus _fuck_ , the timing of it.”

 

Rick closed his eyes and pressed a hand to his forehead. Christ, he was tired. This level of openness and emotional vulnerability was not in his wheelhouse at all, nor was the mindfulness required to maintain it. There was a reason why he hadn’t maintained a real relationship since well before Summer was even born.

 

“Wow,” Summer murmured. She pulled out of his embrace and sat up again, hanging her head as she halfheartedly adjusted her robe to cover some of her bare skin. “When I first came downstairs, I thought you were upset because I yelled at you, but the stuff you were saying wasn’t making any sense until I realized that you… had the same problem I did. I thought it had to be a recent thing because you were so freaked out, but then I thought that couldn’t be true—” she gestured at their surroundings, “—after all _this_. But I guess it was. Rick, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…I—I guess I sort of took advantage of you.” Rick heaved a sigh and sat up. He brushed a lock of hair out of her face before placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

 

“Hey, you saw an opening and went for it. Kinda runs in your family, going after what you want. But don’t apologize. You were right on the money earlier with all that shit about sticking around. This was—it’s my fault. All of it.I never should have left your mom…never should have come back after being gone so long. I could’ve been a better dad. Could’ve been a better grandpa. But…,” he shrugged defeatedly, “that’s not who I am. _I’m_ the one who fucked it all up, kid. I’m…sorry.” It was surreal to hear those words come out of his own mouth with such ease, particularly when he was stone-cold sober. It was like someone else was saying them. He never apologized…never owned up to _anything_. The Wall was compromised, all right. But hell. He’d fucked his granddaughter literally _and_ metaphorically. The least he could do was be straight with her.

 

Summer turned his way once more, and he was crestfallen but not surprised to see tears in her eyes.

 

_It’s what you do, Sanchez._

 

“It is what it is,” she said, offering him a rueful smile, “I know it’s fucked up, but I also know that this is the happiest I’ve been in a long time. I know I don’t want to stop. Is that really what you want?” She laid her own hand, feather-light, over the hand he rested on her shoulder and leaned toward him until they were nearly nose-to-nose. Her voice was low and even, her breath warm and sweet against his lips. “Tell me that I’m misreading you. Tell me you really don’t want to do this. Just tell me. I won’t believe you, but I’ll deal with it.”

 

Rick said nothing at first, temporarily robbed of coherent thought by a sudden wave of overwhelming desire for her. He took a deep breath, dropping his gaze from her eyes to her flush, parted lips. Fuck, he was going to lose this battle.

 

_And she knows…she knows she’s got you, you piece of shit._

 

But he made one final effort.

 

“Like I said…you’re not an idiot. You know this isn’t sustainable. There’s no future in it. It never works out well for anyone who’s looking for a future that has anything to do with me,” He could hear the arousal in his own voice, weakening the firm logic in his words. No doubt she could hear it too.

 

“Who’s thinking about the future?” Summer countered without missing a beat, “I’m thinking about right now. It’s the only thing that’s real.”

 

On impulse, against his own protesting conscience, Rick dragged her onto his lap, unable to stifle a hoarse moan when she straddled him, riding up against his aching erection. Surprise registered on her face only briefly before a slow, triumphant smile spread across her lips.

 

“I knew it,” she whispered.

 

“This is some seriously fucked-up shit,” he observed.

 

“It really is.”

 

Then she kissed him, and sense and reason abandoned him entirely, leaving him with nothing but the powerful compulsion to take her again.

 

_So that’s it, then. Way to take the high road,Sanchez._

 

And she was wasting no time in obliging him. Her hands were already on his belt, unbuckling, unbuttoning, working swiftly to pull him out, touching him with practiced ease. And with a graceful maneuver of her hips, and sudden burst of pleasure, he was inside her again. The aftermath of their last encounter seeped out of her, hot and viscous, drenching them both in a heady sex-musk. A soft sigh escaped her lips at the moment of penetration, head back and eyes gently closed, like she had just eased herself into a warm bubble bath rather than onto her grandfather’s cock.

 

She looked so young and innocent despite her sexual assertiveness, and Rick felt a wave of paternal love that mingled uncomfortably with his potent desire for her. He leaned into it, basking in the taboo thrill of it, and whispered incestuous filth into Summer’s ear as she rocked herself in his lap.

 

“Fuuuuuck, little girl, look at you getting off on Grandpa’s dick. God, just look at you. Yeah, that’s right, baby, make yourself feel good. Show me how much you love it.”

 

“Fuck…Grandpa Rick!” Summer whimpered and ground into him with increased urgency. He slipped her robe off her shoulders, caressing the bare skin of her back with perverse fatherly tenderness, and continued to whisper encouragement as she pleasured herself with his body.It didn’t take long for her to reach the pinnacle of her bliss. She twisted her fingers into his unruly gray hair and pulled his face almost painfully into hers, trembling and gasping around a voracious kiss as she rode out her orgasm.

 

She had scarcely finished before he was rolling her over into the moss and taking his own pleasure with greedy abandon, continuing to lavish praise upon her. It flowed out of him intuitively, a source of pleasure unto itself. She shivered in his arms with every word, and he knew it gave her as much pleasure to hear it as it gave him to say it.

 

“Good girl, so good, you feel so fucking good,” he groaned into her neck with each thrust. And oh god, she did. He felt her slim arms embrace him and caress his back with the same tenderness he’d shown her moments before. It was his turn to shiver. He reflected dimly through a torrent of sensation and emotion on the powerful hold Summer had on him, how not in control he was of this situation.

 

“God, how do you do that?” She breathed, and Rick could hear the wonder in her voice, “How do you know exactly what to say?” He slowed his pace, collecting himself long enough to consider her question with a clear head.

 

“How do _you_ know exactly what to _do_?” He asked in response, then whispered a husky answer to both questions into her ear, “I think… I think we’re both just following our own bliss, Sum-Sum. Just so happens that our bliss is in crazy perfect synchronicity.”

 

He felt her smile against his cheek upon hearing that stupid old pet name, and it compelled him to prop himself up on his elbows so he could see her face again. There was such adoration in her green eyes, he felt an ever persistent pang of guilt yet again, because he knew damn well that he was the least deserving person in the multiverse to be the recipient of that adoration.

  
But guilt or no, his fate was sealed, his selfish choice made the moment he pulled Summer into his lap, and he had no intention of stopping now. He threaded his fingers into her red hair, cradled her head in his hands, and poured every miserable shred of love he felt for her into a burning kiss on her lips as he resumed questing toward his own release in earnest. It was the closest he would ever come to telling her what he really felt.

 

Little more than a ragged sigh passed his lips when he came, softer and sweeter this time, but no less radiant, like a burst of sunlight shining through parting rainclouds rather than the adrenaline-fueled wildfire that had ripped through him during their previous coupling.

 

As his climax tapered off, he was left with a luminous afterglow that easily overpowered any lingering feelings of guilt. His breathing quieted as he lay over Summer, gazing down at her while she gazed right back up at him. They were both smiling.

 

“We are so fucked,” Rick said finally, but there was a resigned amusement in his voice.

 

“Yeah,” Summer agreed, but her smile didn’t falter.

 

He rolled to the side without withdrawing from her, wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her close. She tossed a leg over his narrow hip and snuggled into his chest.

 

The temptation was strong to lay there and doze, basking in Summer’s warmth and softness, possibly even ravishing her a third time after a while. Unfortunately, that ran the terrible risk of the the family waking up to find them missing, and Rick suspected there would be no way to explain why they had portaled away in the middle of the night and returned with Summer in her robe and no clothing or shoes. It was in Beth’s nature to give him the benefit of the doubt, but even that had its limits. And Morty… Morty would think this was weird, picking up on details that Jerry and Beth might miss, and he would be extremely vocal about it.

 

“So it would appear we have two options, here,” Rick murmured drowsily into Summer’s hair, “We have to keep doing this or I have to leave again, because _clearly_ there will be no stopping this if I stay.”

 

“Well, you can’t leave,” Summer asserted, nuzzling her face into his sweater for emphasis.

 

“No duh. I promised your mom I wouldn't. Though I’m betting if she knew about this, she’d _want_ me gone.”

 

“So that leaves us with one option, then.”

 

True enough.

 

Rick planted a brief kiss on Summer’s sweaty forehead before reluctantly pulling out and away from her to refasten his pants. He got to his feet and offered her a hand to help her follow suit. A few moments of brushing out the wrinkles in his lab coat and mopping his brow with a handkerchief had him looking more or less the way he always did. Summer, on the other hand, was in much more of a state. Her hair and robe were hopelessly soiled with bits of purple moss, and streams of ejaculate were running down her thighs, threatening to reach her feet and drip on the floors in the house if left unimpeded. The sight of it brought on an alarming thought.

 

“Shit…you _are_ on the pill, right?”

 

Summer exploded into peals of laughter.

 

“Christ, Rick, are you serious? _Yes!_ ”

 

Relief washed over Rick at her reassurance, and with it, profound fatigue. He nodded and handed her the handkerchief so she could clean up, helped straighten her hair and readjust her robe. When she was as put together as possible, he pulled out the portal gun. Before firing it, he turnedand glanced at her one more time.

 

“I guess we’re in the game. Just don’t forget, this is a dangerous, fucked-up game that we’re probably gonna lose.”

 

His granddaughter looked up at him, her emerald eyes gleaming, a conspiratorial smirk on her lips.

 

“Maybe so…but I’m willing to risk it.,” she replied. Rick nodded again, and acknowledged to himself that, yeah… so was he.

 

With that, he fired the portal gun, took Summer’s hand, and they stepped through together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I don't steer Rick TOO far out of character. I have no doubt that he canonically loves his grandkids, even if he's hellbent on concealing the fact. 
> 
>  
> 
> The note at the end of the last chapter is laughable now, considering that it has now been more than four months since the last update! This chapter got pretty long, too. But real life is busy and stressful, and slowly plugging away at this little story whenever I had a moment has been welcome respite. I hope you're still enjoying it. <3 See you next time, and Happy Halloween!


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